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Tuesday, 28 October 2014

Maths Games

Here are 3 examples of games you can make yourself to reinforce maths concepts with your children. I have used these games in my class with my three and four year olds and all of them are very effective in teaching important maths concepts and a lot of fun. They are quick and very simple to make with things that you have lying around the house.

Fishing Game

Number and colour recognition, turn taking and development of fine motor skills.

The children can either choose a colour and catch all of the fish in that colour or catch all of the fish and sort them according to number or colour.

I used plastic files, number stickers and magnetic tape.

Spider Game

Number recognition and counting using a die.

Get the children to identify the numbers before you begin and then roll the die.

Use a homemade die with the numbers on it or a traditional die if your child is able to count and or recognise the number of dots.

After rolling the die, find the corresponding spider and position on the web.

I cut out the spiders, drew the spider web and laminated them so they can be used again and again.

Snake Counting

Number recognition, counting and ordering numbers.

This activity is a wonderful fine motor activity and promotes imaginative play.

The children need to identify the number on the snakes head and then thread the correct number of beads on the body.

I cut out the snakes heads, laminated them and stuck them to pipe cleaners.

This was so much fun that we got carried away with the number of beads!!!!

Let me know what you think or if you have any questions, leave me a comment.

Tuesday, 21 October 2014

When teaching my class of three year olds to use scissors I always start with lots of pre-cutting activities and build up to cutting playdough and spaghetti. I begin by focusing on holding the scissors correctly and being able to manipulate the scissors correctly. Once they have mastered this and we have discussed using scissors safely and what is appropriate to cut ( not hair!!!! ) I move on to snipping. This is a lot of fun as you don't have to worry about staying on a line, just snipping something into little pieces. This week we have had a lot of fun snipping at our Cutting Station.

I set up our Cutting Station in our water trolley.

Firstly, I tied six pairs of scissors to the water trolley.

I then put out a variety of items that the children could randomly snip into little pieces....straws, strips of cardboard, strips of paper, wool and crepe streamers in bowls.

After a quick revision on using scissors correctly we began snipping....and snipping.....and more snipping..

The water trolley was fantastic because all of the mess was contained.

The children absolutely loved this activity. You should definitely give it a go.

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Hi! Thanks for visiting my blog!

An Idea on Tuesday was born as I am an Early Childhood Teacher and my working week starts on Tuesday.

I am passionate about teaching and don't like repeating activities so I am constantly looking for new ideas which I often try out first with my three beautiful children. All of these ideas can be adapted for various ages and for use in the classroom or at home.

In my spare time I love decorating my home and entertaining. I would love to share some of these ideas with you as well.